Tom Coronel passes 15 cars for sixth in Hungary

Despite writing off his weekend after a terrible qualifying session, compounded by exclusion, Tom Coronel recovered from the last row to take sixth place in race one in Hungary.

The Dutchman also managed to make it up to 12th in race two, but his challenge was thwarted by a damaged intercooler, sustained after contact with Charles Ng’s Liqui Moly Team Engstler BMW at the start.

Coronel had written off his chances on Saturday after qualifying 19th, which later became 21st when the two ROAL BMWs were excluded when the team connected the data loggers when the cars went into parc fermé conditions, with Coronel stating it’s impossible to pass at the Hungaroring, and stuck to his theory after the race.

“It’s true, it is impossible…and you could see the Chevys could not go to the front just because they couldn’t pass,” Coronel told TouringCarTimes.

“Of course I was a little bit lucky that people made mistakes, and every time that people gave me a little chance I just put the car there. I was also surprised by some moves I made, I was also lucky that there was a crash in the first corner that took out four people.”

“I think the move on the last lap with Michelisz was interesting, he was held up by Tiago (Monteiro), and I thought hey let’s try. I didn’t touch him, it was a completely clean move, he gave me exactly the space I needed and he saw I was on his inside.”

Coronel had opted to save his new tyres for the next round, running tyres which had already completed 85km in the first race, which means the ROAL Motorsport driver will have all new tyres for the next round at the Salzburgring in Austria.

Coronel’s recovery in race one to sixth keeps him in fourth in the standings, tied with Lukoil Racing Team’s Gabriele Tarquini.